The Tory Chancellor's Spring Statement was a masterclass in privileged complacency. A series of empty boasts about the strength of the economy are completely undermined by the forecasts of his own Treasury Department.

In those forecasts, economic growth slows to 1.5% this and never gets back above that level in the next 5 years. Real wages are only expected to rise because inflation comes down, which depends on many factors including global commodity prices and the exchange rate of the pound, which are completely beyond the Chancellor's knowledge, let alone his power.

George Osborne's boast that his deficit target has been met is sickening in its complacency. The Tory policy of austerity, which continues to outlive the failed Chancellor, was never about balancing the books. That's why his successor Philip Hammond is sticking with a deeply damaging policy, even though the supposed target has been met.

Far from being ‘all in this together’, those hardest hit by austerity have been those most in need. British Association of Social Workers (BASW), Chair Guy Shennan and Dr Peter Unwin, Senior Lecturer in Social Work at the University of Worcester, outline why social workers in partnership with service users should respond to a ‘flawed economic theory’ and how they can do it.